Looking to build some muscle!

There used to be a sticky for beginning a bulk, not sure where it went. You need to have two key things down to build muscle: a calorie surplus, and a training program with progressive overload, where your muscles are forced to grow to keep up with the loads they are being forced to pick up.

-For the calorie surplus, just tell MFP you want to gain 0lbs per week, see what it sets for you, then add 300 calories to that number. If your weight does not go up by 0.5-1lbs a week, you keep tacking on 100 calories to your daily calorie goal every two weeks until it does. Then you stay put until the weight gain stalls again, and add another 100. This process repeats until you decide you are done bulking.

-For training programs, you could follow a premade program like Stronglifts or Ice Cream Fitness. Or you can create your own; just make sure whatever you program for yourself, you build progressive overload into the program, or you will make zero progress. I recommend full body workouts every other day, or upper/lower split where you workout every day, but take a rest on the 5th day and pepper in extra rest days as needed. Programs that focus on just a couple of body parts each day will be less effective because they don't provide the weekly frequency your muscles need to maintain peak synthesis rates for new fibers: aworkoutroutine.com/the-ultimate-weight-training-workout-routine/

I will note that if your bodyfat is too high, it will hinder your ability to bulk/gain muscle. Bodyfat levels over 20% for men lead to lower use of your surplus calories toward muscle building and more into fat storage (this is called the p-ratio). So you should get an accurate bodyfat measurement using calipers (NOT those home scale tests, those are very inaccurate) so you have an idea if you should be bulking or focusing on fat loss first.

This may not be appropriate but when I first started training my work outs mainly consisted of doing sets of 12 reps then going down by 2 reps I.e 12.10.8.6 but the idea is you increase the weight each time by 2.5kg and week on week you increase the weights each week by 2.5kg so if you do an over head press for example the 1st week begin with 12 reps - just the bar, 10 reps - bar + 2.5kg, 8 reps - bar + 5kg .. And so on, then the following week begin with 12 reps - bar + 2.5 kg and so on

hope that that makes sense and helps

_Bropollo_ wrote: »

There used to be a sticky for beginning a bulk, not sure where it went. You need to have two key things down to build muscle: a calorie surplus, and a training program with progressive overload, where your muscles are forced to grow to keep up with the loads they are being forced to pick up.

-For the calorie surplus, just tell MFP you want to gain 0lbs per week, see what it sets for you, then add 300 calories to that number. If your weight does not go up by 0.5-1lbs a week, you keep tacking on 100 calories to your daily calorie goal every two weeks until it does. Then you stay put until the weight gain stalls again, and add another 100. This process repeats until you decide you are done bulking.

-For training programs, you could follow a premade program like Stronglifts or Ice Cream Fitness. Or you can create your own; just make sure whatever you program for yourself, you build progressive overload into the program, or you will make zero progress. I recommend full body workouts every other day, or upper/lower split where you workout every day, but take a rest on the 5th day and pepper in extra rest days as needed. Programs that focus on just a couple of body parts each day will be less effective because they don't provide the weekly frequency your muscles need to maintain peak synthesis rates for new fibers: aworkoutroutine.com/the-ultimate-weight-training-workout-routine/

I will note that if your bodyfat is too high, it will hinder your ability to bulk/gain muscle. Bodyfat levels over 20% for men lead to lower use of your surplus calories toward muscle building and more into fat storage (this is called the p-ratio). So you should get an accurate bodyfat measurement using calipers (NOT those home scale tests, those are very inaccurate) so you have an idea if you should be bulking or focusing on fat loss first.

Some sources will tell you a male should be no higher than the 12-15 % BF range before bulking.

_Bropollo_ wrote: »

There used to be a sticky for beginning a bulk, not sure where it went. You need to have two key things down to build muscle: a calorie surplus, and a training program with progressive overload, where your muscles are forced to grow to keep up with the loads they are being forced to pick up.

-For the calorie surplus, just tell MFP you want to gain 0lbs per week, see what it sets for you, then add 300 calories to that number. If your weight does not go up by 0.5-1lbs a week, you keep tacking on 100 calories to your daily calorie goal every two weeks until it does. Then you stay put until the weight gain stalls again, and add another 100. This process repeats until you decide you are done bulking.

-For training programs, you could follow a premade program like Stronglifts or Ice Cream Fitness. Or you can create your own; just make sure whatever you program for yourself, you build progressive overload into the program, or you will make zero progress. I recommend full body workouts every other day, or upper/lower split where you workout every day, but take a rest on the 5th day and pepper in extra rest days as needed. Programs that focus on just a couple of body parts each day will be less effective because they don't provide the weekly frequency your muscles need to maintain peak synthesis rates for new fibers: aworkoutroutine.com/the-ultimate-weight-training-workout-routine/

I will note that if your bodyfat is too high, it will hinder your ability to bulk/gain muscle. Bodyfat levels over 20% for men lead to lower use of your surplus calories toward muscle building and more into fat storage (this is called the p-ratio). So you should get an accurate bodyfat measurement using calipers (NOT those home scale tests, those are very inaccurate) so you have an idea if you should be bulking or focusing on fat loss first.

What's the ideal body fat% for a woman to start a bulk?

_Bropollo_ wrote: »

There used to be a sticky for beginning a bulk, not sure where it went. You need to have two key things down to build muscle: a calorie surplus, and a training program with progressive overload, where your muscles are forced to grow to keep up with the loads they are being forced to pick up.

-For the calorie surplus, just tell MFP you want to gain 0lbs per week, see what it sets for you, then add 300 calories to that number. If your weight does not go up by 0.5-1lbs a week, you keep tacking on 100 calories to your daily calorie goal every two weeks until it does. Then you stay put until the weight gain stalls again, and add another 100. This process repeats until you decide you are done bulking.

-For training programs, you could follow a premade program like Stronglifts or Ice Cream Fitness. Or you can create your own; just make sure whatever you program for yourself, you build progressive overload into the program, or you will make zero progress. I recommend full body workouts every other day, or upper/lower split where you workout every day, but take a rest on the 5th day and pepper in extra rest days as needed. Programs that focus on just a couple of body parts each day will be less effective because they don't provide the weekly frequency your muscles need to maintain peak synthesis rates for new fibers: aworkoutroutine.com/the-ultimate-weight-training-workout-routine/

I will note that if your bodyfat is too high, it will hinder your ability to bulk/gain muscle. Bodyfat levels over 20% for men lead to lower use of your surplus calories toward muscle building and more into fat storage (this is called the p-ratio). So you should get an accurate bodyfat measurement using calipers (NOT those home scale tests, those are very inaccurate) so you have an idea if you should be bulking or focusing on fat loss first.

What's the ideal body fat% for a woman to start a bulk?

ndj1979 wrote: »

Samm471 wrote: »

_Bropollo_ wrote: »

There used to be a sticky for beginning a bulk, not sure where it went. You need to have two key things down to build muscle: a calorie surplus, and a training program with progressive overload, where your muscles are forced to grow to keep up with the loads they are being forced to pick up.

-For the calorie surplus, just tell MFP you want to gain 0lbs per week, see what it sets for you, then add 300 calories to that number. If your weight does not go up by 0.5-1lbs a week, you keep tacking on 100 calories to your daily calorie goal every two weeks until it does. Then you stay put until the weight gain stalls again, and add another 100. This process repeats until you decide you are done bulking.

-For training programs, you could follow a premade program like Stronglifts or Ice Cream Fitness. Or you can create your own; just make sure whatever you program for yourself, you build progressive overload into the program, or you will make zero progress. I recommend full body workouts every other day, or upper/lower split where you workout every day, but take a rest on the 5th day and pepper in extra rest days as needed. Programs that focus on just a couple of body parts each day will be less effective because they don't provide the weekly frequency your muscles need to maintain peak synthesis rates for new fibers: aworkoutroutine.com/the-ultimate-weight-training-workout-routine/

I will note that if your bodyfat is too high, it will hinder your ability to bulk/gain muscle. Bodyfat levels over 20% for men lead to lower use of your surplus calories toward muscle building and more into fat storage (this is called the p-ratio). So you should get an accurate bodyfat measurement using calipers (NOT those home scale tests, those are very inaccurate) so you have an idea if you should be bulking or focusing on fat loss first.

What's the ideal body fat% for a woman to start a bulk?

18-22% give or take

Cheers